A while back, my Dell laptop went on a streak of failures. Several of them happened to be your exact ISSUE. First, it was the memory causing random BSoD's/freezes. Then, it was the hard drive. Lastly, it was the motherboard.

If your memory and hard drive passed the tests, then what I did to find out if the motherboard is the problem, was:

Take all unnecessary cards out, not including the hard drive, memory, and video card. If the freezing stops, it may be an optional card causing the problem. In this case, reinsert each hard one by one until it resumes freezing, and you've found the culprit.

If the freezing does not stop, we already KNOW that the memory and hard drive are good; the only options left are: the Motherboard & Video Card.

I used THIS to test the video card's stability. Of course, if it freezes during the test, this doesn't necessarily mean that the video card is the problem. Checking the error logs may shed some light on any errors that may have occurred during the test, however.

If you still can't determine if the video card is the culprit or not, try using a known good video card from another computer, or try borrowing a friend's.

If you do determine that the video card is not the issue, the only option left is the motherboard.

I realize I am IGNORING the PSU, but this is because a bad PSU would normally cause crashes or reboots. The only case I can see that the PSU would cause freezes is if it was not rated for your computer configuration - and this would have been apparent at the time the PC was purchased. However, this assumes the PC was not overclocked by you, and you did not recently upgrade the hardware.Hmm.. That sound like it's going to be a bit messy. Even more so considering that I'm not that familiar with the inside of my computer.

But, I'm a fast learner. I'm sure I'll figure it out.Opened up my computer,
and I don't think I have any optional cards. Unless the PCI card counts.


and how long should I run this video card stability test?Got my second blue screen today.

Not sure if this helps, but this is the information I wrote down from it.

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL


Technical Information:

STOP: 0x0000000A (0x00000000, 0x0000001C, 0x00000000, 0x804FFF41)Yo, it's been a week since my last post, so I thought I 'd give a status update.

I've received a few more BSODs, and I'm getting used to having to constantly restart my computer.Post the entire BSOD message including the gibbersh...Sorry it took so long. I had to wait until I received another BSOD.

Here's the newest one:
Quote

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is your first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to be sure you have adequate disk space. If a driver is identified in the stop message, disable the driver or check with the manufacturer for drive updates. Try changing video adapters.

Check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS updates. Disable BIOS memory options ssuch as caching and shadowing. If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to selected Advanced Startup options and then select safe mode.

Technical Information:

*** STOP: 0x0000008E, (0xC0000005, 0x8056D2DA, 0xF8976C94, 0x00000000)

Beginning to DUMP pyhsical memory
physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further ASSISTANCE.